Dr. Paul Nghiem

Dr. Paul Nghiem, MD, PhD. specializes in skin cancers with a particular interest in optimizing the management of patients with Merkel cell carcinoma.

Dr. Nghiem has cared for over 800 patients with MCC and has read, lectured and written about this uncommon and challenging disease. He is a dermatologist/ scientist who moved ‘back home’ in 2006 from the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute to the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance. Dr. Nghiem conducts basic science research on cancer biology at the University of Washington and Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle. His contributions to the MCC literature can be viewed at his laboratory website at http://www.pnlab.org. With a goal of defining more optimal treatment for MCC, the team is maintaining a clinical database and tumor bank to better analyze this rare disease. In addition, he is leading genetic studies to further understand the biology of MCC. He has also founded the MCC Multicenter Interest Group, with representatives from over 20 institutions to pool resources and expertise on this challenging cancer. An increasing number of clinical trials are ongoing for this cancer. Dr. Nghiem describes the warning signs of MCC on Seattle’s King 5.